The Great Bear Chase races are in the books and the weekend seemed to be fun for all involved! The main events on saturday saw 515 contestants in the 3 distances which is a very good turnout for the 34 year old race. The snowbike race on sunday saw lower numbers than last year but conditions were excellent! For ski race results, go to greatbearchase.com.
The winners in the bike race were: 25km. Men’s- Mike Reuter 1:17.54
Women- Kathy Abbott 1:34.31
10km. John Durocher 36:33
Some other interesting info: Of the finishers of the ski races on Saturday, there were the same number from Wisconsin as from Michigan (191 ea.) , 61 from Minnesota and 28 from Illinois. There were also finishers from Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Vermont, California, Virginia and North Carolina. Our AVERAGE conditions for early March are temperatures of overnight lows of 14 fahrenheit and highs of 27 degrees. Our average snow base on the trails at that time is approx. 2 to 2.5 feet. What we had was lows of 10 degrees and a high of 18. Our base was approx. 4 ft. Our typical last grooming commences at 10pm and finishes up approx. 5:30 to 6am. (Although that can vary greatly when dealing with a wide range of conditions.)
We gave away approx. $1,600 value in random prizes, and the racer from farthest away was from Berkley, California and the closest lives on Swedetown hill, approx. 100 yards off the trail (good race Danise!)
The Great Bear Chase 2015 will be on March 7, always 2 weeks after the Birkie.